Amerks Spoil Hamel's HOF Night In Binghamton

Amerks Spoil Hamel's HOF Night In Binghamton

The Rochester Americans extended their winning streak to a season-high four games on Saturday night with a 5-2 victory over the Binghamton Senators at Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena.

It was Rochester's fourth straight win on the road. They haven't done that--without a home game in between--since January, 2007.

The evening began with Denis Hamel's induction into the Binghamton hockey Hall of Fame. Hamel spent six seasons in Binghamton and owns every major franchise scoring record. Before that, he played parts of four seasons with the Amerks.

Luke Adam led the Amerks with a three-point night, scoring his team-leading 18th goal of the season and adding two assists. Kevin Porter, Johan Larsson and Brayden Irwin all recorded a goal and an assist in the game while Brayden McNabb collected two assists. Jamie Tardif rounded out the scoring by netting a goal for the fourth consecutive game and goaltender Matt Hackett turned aside 31 of 33 shots to earn the win.

Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Rochester native Shane Prince each scored for the Senators while goaltender Andrew Hammond stopped 29 of 34 shots in the losing effort.

A wild first period saw the teams combine for five goals as the Amerks took a 3-2 lead in the opening 20 minutes. Irwin got the scoring started just 1:45 into the contest when he gathered in a rebound and tucked a shot just under the cross-bar to give Rochester an early lead. The assists on Irwin’s first goal as an Amerk went to Larsson and Adam, who extended his point streak to four games with the helper.

Binghamton responded by capitalizing on the first power play opportunity of the game. Chris Wideman took a slap shot from the blue line that was kicked aside by Hackett, but the puck went straight to Pageau, who was stationed in the left face-off circle and quickly swept the rebound into the back of the Rochester net for the equalizer.

The next two goals were scored by the Amerks as they took a 3-1 lead. First, Porter scored his eighth of the season. Although the goal was unassisted, Kevin Sundher helped create the scoring chance as he pressured a Binghamton defenseman in front of the Senators net, causing the clearing pass to be intercepted by Porter, who then snapped a quick shot past Hammond for the goal.

Tardif then extended his goal streak to four games when he buried a rebound for a power play goal. Mark Pysyk, who was reassigned by the Buffalo Sabres on Friday, fed McNabb for a one-timer. While McNabb’s shot was knocked down by Hammond, Tardif was there to clean up the rebound and give the Amerks a 3-1 lead.

The Senators responded just over a minute later, as Prince took a pass from Andre Petersson from the left wing boards, skated into the slot and fired a wrist shot past a screened Hackett to cut his team’s deficit to 3-2.

Rochester would regain its two-goal lead just 1:26 into the second period when Larsson scored his fifth goal of the season. Adam carried the puck around the Binghamton net and, with a defender close behind, took a back-handed shot that went wide. Irwin was the first to reach the loose puck and sent it back to the front of the net, where Larsson was able to poke it just inside the left post for the goal.

Late in the second period, the Senators took back-to-back minor penalties to give the Amerks a two-man advantage, and Rochester capitalized as Adam tipped in a shot by McNabb with just eight seconds remaining in the period, giving Adam his third point of the game and team-leading 18th goal of the season.

Binghamton piled up 13 shots in the third period, but Hackett stopped them all as the Amerks held on for the 5-2 win to close out their six-game road trip with a 5-1-0-0 record.

The Amerks return home after a three-week long absence on Wednesday, Jan. 29 when they welcome the Chicago Wolves to The Blue Cross Arena.

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